This was originally written for, and posted on, MediaPost: Engage: Boomers.

Last week, scheduling a dinner meeting, I tried to recall the name of a restaurant where I had recently eaten a phenomenal cacio e pepe dish.  I could see the restaurant in my mind and even the approximate location but for the life of me I couldn’t remember its name.  I could have googled it or just described the location to my dinner guest had it not dawned on me: I could just log into … Read more

The other night while watching CBS’s “The Good Wife,” I saw Apple’s newest iPhone television spot, “First Steps.” In the storyline, a young mother is talking about her child’s first steps, which she then records and sends to her mother and grandfather. The tagline, “We would never have shared all that without the iPhone,” brilliantly signals key multi-generational benefits of the 3GS iPhones: capturing and sharing important family milestones…. Read more

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world and everywhere you turn, people are racing to embrace AMC’s Mad Men, a drama about an advertising agency circa early 1960s, on the eve of the political and social upheavals that would define the Boomers.  First, it was the marketing and advertising Twitterati converting their avatars into Mad Men characters this summer in anticipation of the show’s return; then the Emmys who conferred no less than 16 nominations to the show, which ultimately won best drama, and now Sesame … Read more

This piece was originally posted on MediaPost’s Engage: Boomers’ Blog.

In the opening credits of “A Hard Day’s Night,” the 1964 mock-u-mentary, the clean-cut, youthful Beatles are seen madly scampering through the streets of London, dodging throngs of frenzied, worshipping teenage Boomer fans. With the release of “The Beatles: Rockband” on Monday, Harmonix Music Systems is hoping that The Beatles will bring that same generation, now 45-64 years old, to video gaming and multi-media music consumption — just as they brought that generation to rock and roll, stadium concerts and music videos.

Video gaming has long been entertainment medium of choice … Read more

For many years, marketers have shied away from targeting Boomers — particularly older Boomers, i.e., over 50 — on the theory that they were less affluent, less likely to try new products and less willing to switch brands.

Now, it appears, marketers are having a change of heart driven in part by the recession and in part by changing demographics — a change of heart that Stuart Elliott nicely summarized in his New York Times piece last week. Big marketers such as Target, Chrysler, Kraft Foods, L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble are discovering that older consumers, during this … Read more

I am, sadly, approaching that “certain age” when AARP will soon send me a birthday card welcoming me.  Nevertheless, I have a Facebook account.  I’ve had one for several years — ever since my kids first told me they wanted to go on a “new site to hook up with friends.”  Being somewhat over-protective, I consented with the proviso that I had to be their “friend” too.  At the time, I was there alone — other than my kids, that is.
Now, my friends are increasingly discovering Facebook and other social networks, using them to reconnect with friends from … Read more